On the German side of the river: Kehl

Last time I showed you a bit of Strasbourg, which is a pretty famous French city. Not so many people know (at least, I didn't) that a perfectly charming little town is right across the Rhine from it.

As you can see above, Kehl's fruit trees were in totally full bloom, and we had a nice stroll around the town, which was much less crowded than its French sister. Viking (of course) provided us with a helpful map that guided our free form excursion, and we're glad we chose this more relaxing option for our afternoon.

There's even a handsome church in Kehl's "downtown"...

...as well as their own war memorial...

The memorial is at one end of this lovely "lake":

The reason for the quotation marks: the body of water is called "der alte Rhein," or the "old Rhine." I assume this means that it was part of the river long ago, before its channel was modernized to make shipping easier by cutting down on meanders.

Perhaps the most pleasant part of our stroll was along the river front as it is today, where there's a very nice linear park made out of the floodplain:

In addition to the lovely wildflowers, there were some interesting pieces of public art in this area, like this whimsical collection of birdhouses...

...as well as this interesting bronze ribbon, which tells the history of the town as you follow along its moebius-strip-like surface:

Kehl, Germany: another nice surprise excursion. And our next-to-last stop in Germany!

Wordless Wednesday: a tight squeeze

 

Spires (and more) in Speyer

This time, just as in 2017, some of the stops along the river that we weren't expecting to be highlights turned out to be just that. On the Danube, Passau is a great example of this phenomenon; I'd never even heard of it before we got our cruise itinerary, and it turned out to be, possibly, my favorite city on the trip. Speyer, Germany, was a similar nice surprise. (Although for folks who know more European history than I do, it's obvious Speyer is a lot more famous than Passau!)

The highlight-within-the-highlight was of course the Kaiserdom (Imperial Cathedral) that you can see behind the cool statue of the pilgrim above. I mean, when a slew of Holy Roman Emperors are buried there, and construction on it was begun in the eleventh century, how could it not be a highlight? You can read about its very colorful and interesting history in the Wikipedia link above, but we were mainly entranced by its beautiful appearance...

the Dom as we approached it from the river 

gorgeous stonework on the eastern side

more amazing stonework on the north side;
our guide told us this is the result of more recent restorations

and of course...the doors!

The interior was also impressive, as these enormous structures always are:

It also offers a variety of unusual items in a little side chapel: some very highly decorated relics. This one might be—supposedly—a bit of the "True Cross." "Kreuz" means "cross"; sorry, but I didn't take a photo of any informational signage. It's attractively displayed, at any rate.

And this is what the Dom looks like from the other end of the pleasant pedestrian avenue of  Maximillianstraße...

...where there's another Speyer architectural highlight...

This is the Altpörtel, or Old City Gate (ironically, not as old as the Dom, with construction having begun in just the 13th century). As you can see in this link to the Speyer tourism office website, you can't go up into the tower, but we wouldn't have had time for that anyway. We just enjoyed passing through its cool archway, and, especially, admiring its unusual clock:

Our guide explained (and you can read about this in the tourism link) that the large face only gives you the hour, while the smaller one tells you which quarter of the hour you're in. It seems like it would take people twice as long to figure out what time it is in this arrangement, but I guess they weren't as concerned with exact-atomic-clock-time in the 18th century, which is when the clock was installed.

Henry, as is his wont, did some extra exploring on his own, and toured this church, that the rest of us only looked at from the Gate:

St. Joseph's Parish Church, of much more
recent vintage, but still impressive

Another handsome church that we glimpsed but didn't have time to explore, was this one, the Dreifaltigskeitskirche/Trinity Church:

In addition to these monumental structures, we got to see some of the more intimate side of Speyer, as our guide (one of the best of many good ones) walked us down a cute little alley. Along the way we saw signs that some buildings had been the homes of guild members in the past...

we were assured this wasn't the birthplace of the former Chancellor,
but rather the site of a craftsman who might have been a barber/dentist
(note the pliers!)

We learned of another custom that was unfamiliar to us (and we saw it often elsewhere after learning about it):

The chalk-written symbols here signify that this house was "blessed" by the three Wise Men on Epiphany this year: the letters stand for Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, and of course there's a star. What happens is that groups of people go around singing carols at this time, and if you give them a donation of some kind, they "bless" your house for the coming year. (I suspect this place might need a blessing: the horseshoe is hung upside down! At least that's what I'd always been told, but this website says the "wrong" way makes sense and also works. You learn something new—and sometimes many things—every day, especially when travelling.)

Just strolling down the Maximillianstraße to get back to the river* was enjoyable and interesting. For example, we saw these tiles laid into the cobblestones of the street. The Jewish family that owned the building so marked was forced to flee ("flucht") in the late 1930's. Seeing these markers reminded me again how well Germany has dealt with the terrible parts of its history, in ways that I would hope we could eventually match.

And their younger generation is providing inspiration in Europe's current crisis as well. These young ladies were performing on the street to raise funds for Ukraine:

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*Since I usually sing Viking's praises throughout this blog, for parity's sake I need to mention that this day's touring did begin with a hiccup—although it was remedied in almost perfect Viking fashion.

We were supposed to make a brief stop in Mannheim, a large city a bit downstream from Speyer, and then continue on the river, while having  lunch and some onboard entertainment as we sailed, until we reached there. Well, the brief stop got elongated rather alarmingly, due to "technical issues" that were never explained (we suspected some sort of covid problem, although it could have been a docking slip snafu). 

Which wouldn't have been so bad, had they just told us, "Go stroll around Mannheim for a few hours while we sort this out." But instead, possibly because they didn't know how long we'd be held up, we just had to twiddle our thumbs on Alruna for quite a while (which, to be sure, is not the worst place to have to do this, and of course we had a wonderful lunch). Eventually, they did tell us we could go explore the city, and gave us a nice map, but told us we needed to be back in an hour to catch busses to Speyer.

fruit tree in glorious bloom near our dock in Mannheim

So that's what we did, although we couldn't see too much in the time allotted, and there was some stress when we had a little trouble finding our way back to the river (you'd think it would be easy!). Mannheim is an interesting place, with some very scenic architecture, etc., and it would have been nice to have had more time there.

Jesuit Church that we didn't have time to visit

a pretty impressive academic quadrangle at the University of Mannheim,
with tourists for scale

I didn't notice, until I was going over things for the blog, that there is a Schillerdenkmal (Schiller memorial) not far from the river. Since the dude was one of my favorites back in the day when I was a German major (which I abandoned before graduation) that would have been nice to see. 

Oh well, a minor glitch in an otherwise fabulous day on the Rhine. We made it to Speyer on time via the busses, and the shipboard entertainment (the interesting and informative "nautical talk" that goes into all kinds of interesting river- and ship-related topics) was re-scheduled for that evening. When we finished touring Speyer, there was Alruna waiting for us, technical issues resolved and ready to take us further upstream, and into a whole different country! Stay tuned.

Wordless Wednesday: does this really need to be said?!

 

Along the Rhine: fairy tale settings

This super-photogenic hunk of rock is one of the most Romantic locations in Germany—at least that's what I remember from the German Romanticism course I took in college. Yes, it's the Lorelei rock, famous in song and story. And it's only one of the many wonderful sights we took in from Alruna's sundeck the afternoon after leaving Koblenz.

Most of said sights were more on the order of this:

Marksburg Castle

As some of you may know, we had seen many of the stupendously scenic castles along this stretch of the Rhine before—in 1996 on our day cruise from Bingen-Rüdesheim down to St. Goar and back. Here are some photos and reminiscences from that trip. Marksburg, however, was a new castle for us, and a pretty spectacular one at that, I think you'll agree.

We got to see several more castles downstream from St. Goar on this trip, but I was happy to see that the website that allowed me to identify each one before is still operational. And it includes the new ones. So thanks to LoreleyInfo again! The links I've made to more information about each castle in this post are from that very handy site.

Unfortunately, they don't do the same thing for the charming little villages along the route, so I can't tell you where the impressive church on the right was. But I can say that the villages are almost as photogenic as the castles. What a lovely stretch of river!

Another pair of new castles for us have a picturesque backstory, although one that LoreleyInfo disputes. The first one you come to (when going upstream, as we were) is Sterrenberg, and the second is Liebenstein. I got them both in one shot, so you can see how close they are to one another. And notice the wall in between; that's what gave rise to the legend that they were the homes of "hostile brothers."

That was the story our program director fed us, but according to the website, the truth is much less dramatic. Too bad!

Just a bit beyond our 1996 cruise end point is part of another pair, that we got to see this time...

"Maus" Castle

... whose mate, of course, is ...

"Katz" Castle

I guess, with a little imagination, they look like a cat and a mouse? Here are each from a different viewpoint, showing also a bit of their adjoining little village, Sankt Goarhausen. So you can make the cat-mouse comparison for yourself, if you like.

The town opposite these castles is Sankt Goar, and I thought I'd show you their waterfront, too. Notice the Ukrainian flag flying beside the German—a common sight throughout Germany.

Yes, the villages are helpfully labelled as you go along the river, but I didn't always take pictures of the labels in a way that made the more panoramic views identifiable. And I didn't take good notes. 😞

A couple more favorites of mine from 1996, viewed this time, are Stahleck Castle ...

... and this cool little structure out in the river itself; it's the Pfalzgrafenstein Toll Station at Kaub ...

These sights are the first of a bang-bang-bang lineup of beauties heading into Rüdesheim, which was Alruna's stop for the night, and where our 1996 cruise started and ended.

We did observe that cruising in comfort isn't the only way to see this wonderful countryside. Here's one of several RV parks (which is what they'd be called in the U.S.) along the way and most seemed to be doing a good business...

Just two more castles to show you:

Rheinstein Castle

Ehrenfels Castle

Ehrenfels is the ruined castle that we got to clamber around back in 1996. Take a look at the bottom of the webpage for some pictures of a castle that looks just the same, and tourists who definitely don't!

I do have one more 1996 connection to show you. When we visited Europe then, we met up with a friend of Henry's from his grade school days in Germany. Amazingly, we've been able to keep in touch with him and his lovely wife and met up with them on this trip, too! In 1996, they were living in Mainz, and showed us lots of cool sights in that area. They live further away from the Rhine now, but still made the journey to Rüdesheim anyway, just to join us for dinner. (The bag Uli is holding contains a bottle of wine they brought us, along with, of course, four glasses!)

Henry and Uli catching up in Rüdesheim

Getting to see them again made what was already a pretty spectacular vacation even more meaningful. Maybe someday they'll make it to the U.S. for a vacation and we can repay their hospitality.

Koblenz: a corner of Germany

At the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle, the land forms a neat triangle, and the Latin for "confluence" gave its name to the town that sits there. (Yes, it was also a Roman outpost, just like Klön). 

The triangle itself is called das deutsches Eck (the German corner), and it's presided over by the impressive monument to Wilhelm I that you see above. He was called "der Große" ("the Great," not "the Gross") because of his role in unifying Germany into a single country in 1871. The statue was destroyed in WWII, though, and there was some controversy before it was restored as you see it, according to our local Koblenz guide. But folks must have felt somewhat attached to the old look, and so here it stands today, a definitely dated, though majestic, welcome to the charming town.

Koblenz' Altstadt (old town) is eminently walkable, and we had a pleasant stroll through its narrow streets and picturesque squares after a short ride from our boat's docking place in Braubach (about 10 km upstream). On the left above you can get a nice glimpse of one of the Liebfrauenkirche's towers (St. Mary's Church). We later had time to duck inside and here's a look at the church's impressive decor:

Another handsome church in the Altstadt is the Kastorkirche, or Basilica of St. Castor:

We either didn't have time to look inside this big boy, or perhaps it wasn't open. But there is a really cool monument—of sorts—in the plaza in front of it. First, a little background. As history buffs among

my readers know, many of the lands on either side of the Rhine that we've been sailing past have changed hands between France and Germany many times. At one time, during Napoleon's reign, Koblenz (then spelled Coblenz) was French. And the French governor of the area was so confident that Napoleon's campaign in Russia would be successful that he built the monumental fountain you see on the right. It's now known as the Kastorbrunnen, or St. Castor's fountain.

His inscription reads (in bad French, according to the Wikipedia article linked above): "In 1812 / Memorial to the campaign against the Russians / under the prefecture of Jules Doazan." Of course, anyone who's heard the 1812 Overture knows how the campaign actually turned out. Not only was Napoleon driven out of Russia, but two years later the Russian army drove deep into his empire, at least as far as Koblenz. 

The Russian general, however, had more of a sense of humor than his modern counterparts, it seems. Instead of knocking down the insulting fountain, he just added this inscription (in French, no less):"Seen and approved by us, Russian commander of the city Koblenz, on 1 January 1814." You really can't make this stuff up! And thanks to Christiane, our guide, for pointing out this monument to foibles and sarcasm, par excellence. Otherwise we probably wouldn't have noticed it.

Another attraction near the Basilica is this display of pieces of the Berlin wall, symbols of Germany's latest unification:

Moving back from the 20th century to the 18th, you have this lovely window. The building it decorates is a Guildhall, originally built in 1709, but restored after the war in 1951, according to the inscription:

We spent some of our free time in the St. Mary's church, but also had time to relax in with some tea in the nice Jesuitenplatz (Jesuit Square). This handsome building provides one side of the square. Notice the cute gables on the roof? There are just enough of them that they can be used as a large Advent calendar at Christmastime. Clever, eh?

Here we are in another Koblenz square (this time I neglected to make a note of its name, and can't find it on google maps). The large statue (not the tourist) features scenes from the history of the town:

This clock is in that unidentified square, too. We were told the guy at the bottom sticks out his tongue on the hour, but we didn't have time to wait for the show:

This clock, and the Kastorbrunnen, aren't the only rather droll sites close to the hearts of Koblenz. One of their most famous pieces of public art (which, shockingly, has no Wikipedia page!) is the Schängelbrunnen, a statue of a naughty boy that periodically spits out water at passersby (the linked article will explain what the name means):

You know he's famous, and probably much loved, since you see his likeness all over the Altstadt:

And here's some more whimsy you can see underfoot:

I don't want to leave Koblenz without showing you some of the lovely flowers that were on display. We were so smart to make our vacation at this time of year! We saw flowers like this everywhere, and not just tulips, either.

As much as we saw and learned in Koblenz, that was just the morning! We spent the rest of the day taking in the most scenic section of the Rhine, the stretch dotted with amazing castles. Some of them we saw on our day cruise in 1996, but they're worth seeing again. And some of them were new to us, like Marksburg, right at Braubach. Our travel companions got to tour it up close, while we were seeing Koblenz, but it was pretty impressive just from the sundeck of Alruna:

This is just a teaser. Look for more of these fairy-tale housing projects next time.